This post is going to be a part of my book blogging tips series of posts (even though it’s only the 2nd one it’s still a series!) and one in which I’ve been having a lot more experience with lately. While book blogging is a super fun and wonderful hobby to have it still has its downsides and those are what I’m going to be talking about in this post.

I’m not trying to scare anyone away from starting a book blog but I thought it’d be a good idea to get some of the cons to book blogging out there in the open since they are important too! So hopefully this will either help some of you know what you’re getting into or it will remind those of you who already blog of some of the things we go through.

This one is definitely one of the bigger pressures for me because sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to get lots of posts done to schedule for later and then you may end up going a day or two without ANY posts getting posted! This can ultimately lead to feeling the pressure of trying to post consistently even if you get up a few posts every week you can feel that it “isn’t enough” when really YOU decide what’s enough and what’s not on your own blog.

Sometimes this can lead to a blogging slump (which I’ll discuss as well) and you won’t feel motivated to post at all let alone consistently.

This is why it’s important to take breaks when you need them and de-stress yourself!

The Pressure to be Unique

This is actually a little more minor than some of the other topics I picked but it is definitely still a pressure. With so many other book blogs, bloggers, and weekly bookish memes it sometimes can feel hard to be 100% unique with your own blog, posts, and ideas. It’s definitely easy to do weekly memes since those post ideas are already thought up for you and as I said it can feel harder to come up with your own ideas when you have such easy access to others.

I know such things, for me, can lead to feeling like your own ideas and blog “aren’t good enough” which definitely is NOT the case. If you can’t come up with post ideas it’s 100% fine to do memes, I love memes! It may also be a good idea to take a break and try brainstorming ideas and then come back to your blog too.

The Pressure of Blog Stats

I think this is definitely something we can ALL relate to, right? Watching our blog stats day in and day out and probably feeling at some point that they (once again) “aren’t good enough” or “why don’t I have lots of views/followers?”. The pressure to get “better” blog stats is immense when it comes to blogging, we all feel it!

It also gets worse when you’re on hiatus or in a slump because those stats will decrease even more, the key is to not get caught up in your stats because they really aren’t that important. Your stats don’t make your blog wonderful YOU do.

The Pressure of Gaining Followers

This one goes hand in hand with the stats thing I mentioned and once again I think this is something we can all relate to. It’s always nice to get followers it makes us feel good because someone cared enough to follow our blogs and read our posts! So of course it’s easy to get caught up in gaining more and more followers and wanting our blogs to be “big”. However, it’s important to remember followers are not everything and your blog is still amazing because of the work you put into it and not the number of followers you have!

The Pressure of ARCs (Advanced Review Copies)

ARCs are a really big thing in the world of book blogging and they can actually add a lot of pressure though. Such as trying to get your hands on them, over-requesting and getting approved for more than you can handle, and lastly trying to get them read before their publication dates! Of course ARCs are a wonderful privilege but they can get overwhelming sometimes.

The Pressure of Catching Up on Posts

The longer you’ve been blogging the more you’ll run into other wonderful book bloggers to chat with and follow! So of course all those bloggers add up quite a bit after a while and sometimes it’s hard to find the time to catch up on everyone’s posts which can ultimately, like with me, make you feel guilty for being behind on posts. I find it helps a lot to dedicate a certain amount of time just for browsing other posts that way you catch up without feeling too much pressure.

The Pressure of Commenting

This goes for commenting on other blogs as well as catching up on comments left on your own blog. As with catching up on posts it can be hard to find the time to give your comments the proper amount of thought and therefore it’s easy to put it off. The amount of comments and posts can get overwhelming sometimes so like I said earlier it’s a good idea to take separate time for JUST catching up with comments.

The Pressure of Reading/Blogging Slumps

Slumps come around when you burn yourself out on something from doing too much all at once. Reading and blogging slumps go hand in hand too, you either can’t read and don’t have enough material for posts or you can’t post and then you have nowhere to discuss the books you’ve been reading! Sometimes you just need a break and it’s 100% okay to take that break, come back when you want to everyone will still be here for you!

The Pressure of Blog/ARC Envy

You know that tiny little inkling of jealousy you may get when you see someone’s gorgeous blog design? Or someone whose blog has thousands of followers? Or a blogger who has that ARC of a book you’ve been really looking forward to? Yeah we all get a little blog/ARC envy every now and then and sometimes that will make you feel some pressure because you’re thinking your blog isn’t “good enough” for all of that.

The important thing is to remember to keep your blog fun and know that eventually you WILL get that many followers and you WILL get that ARC you’ve really wanted just keep working for it!

The Pressure of Review Requests

This isn’t as big of a pressure as these other points I’ve brought up but it does still show up every now and then for me. When you’ve been blogging for a bit you will be approached by self-published and Indie authors to review their books now this can go along with ARCs and the pressures that come with those or it can be a different kind of pressures, such as feeling guilty if you do not want to review the book. You are, however, never obligated to accept a review request if you don’t want to!

Sidenote: another thing that can get pretty annoying about review requests is if you state which kinds of books you read in your review policy and people STILL send you the requests. Or if you state you are NOT accepting review requests and STILL get them. I always feel you are 100% in your right to not only say no but also ignore requests from people who did not take the proper amount of time to properly read your review policy.

39 thoughts on “Not All Fun & Games: The Pressures of Book Blogging”

Great post! I agree with a lot of what’s on here and my blog has only been up since last June (and even then I only really started gathering momentum with my posting and reviewing a couple months ago). The part about arcs is so true. I had two arcs being released at the end of March and beginning of April–I finished one and am rushing to finish the other haha. At least they’ve both been very enjoyable 😀

Thank you! (sorry for such a late comment, I’ve been in a slump and trying to catch up!)
Glad you can relate to a lot of these!
That’s one of the big downsides to ARCs is the rushing, I do it all the time but hey at least they’re getting read right? I’m glad the ones you have are enjoyable there’s nothing worse than trying to rush through a book you don’t like! 🙂

Great post. All of these points are so true. Even though I don’t post every day, I often get overwhelmed. Blogging takes time. Also the pressure when it comes to blog stats. I try to not look at other blogs and get jealous, but it happens sometimes

Thank you I’m glad you can relate to these! I don’t post every day either but like you said it’s really easy to get overwhelmed because it is so time consuming! I think it is safe to say blog-envy gets the best of all of us sometimes. 🙂

Oh my gosh. This post is bang on.
Review Requests really annoy me sometimes, I can’t appreciate the fact they consider me enough but when I have politely turned them down or let them know that I’m not accepting them right now and they still email ‘when will you be free’ or they send it anyway.

With my having anxiety its honestly so hard for me to even turn them down because I get this guilt feeling and horrible ideas that these people I don’t even know are going to hate me (like t matters) and i’m like letting them down. So when I continuously get emails I feel worse and worse.

Blogging can be so hard but luckily the downsides come with beautiful advantages of making new friends and interacting with people who love reading just as much as you!

Thank you so much Hannah!
I 100% agree with you on the review requests! I definitely am flattered people consider me to read their books but it gets pretty irritating when most authors outright ignore my review policy! I think the worst is when they just send me the review copy regardless of what I say, like excuse you no I will still not read it.

I can really relate with you on the anxiety part too, while I don’t think mine is that severe I still feel you! It was a lot worse when I was new to blogging, like you said I felt absolutely horrible turning people down but I’ve just quit accepting review requests because of it. So now when people send me requests even though it states on my page I am not I have no problem ignoring them as they ignored my review policy.

I definitely agree that the pros to blogging outweigh the cons but it is still very nice to know I’m not the only one that deals with these issues! 🙂

Glad you can relate to some of these! It’s really awesome you don’t get caught up in blog stats, it must take a lot of pressure of your blogging because I know for me it can get overwhelming sometimes. I do 100% agree with you that blogging is for ourselves and getting to chat books with people! 🙂

This post is sooooooo relatable. I think my biggest struggle right now is trying to come up with consistent and unique posts. I really want to be one of those bloggers that are constantly putting out original discussions, but then I also know that’s just not how my brain works and I’m slowly accepting that my blog is okay the way it is. I definitely find it hard to fit in as much blog hopping and commenting as I should be too. I had no idea just how time consuming blogging was going to be when I first started 😂 I love it and definitely don’t regret it, but there is a lot more pressure than I was expecting. I think the best thing to do is take breaks, which also used to make me feel guilty, but now I look at it as that it’s better to be absent for a while than to completely lose interest all together!

Coming up with unique content definitely is a struggle, especially when it’s just so easy to do reviews and memes! It also feels like every time I get an idea it’s already been done, which isn’t too much of a problem since all of our opinions are unique anyways! I also would love to be a blogger that is constantly putting out posts like that but like you said our blogs are the way they are and that’s 100% okay!

Also like you said I’m finding out the hard way what happens when my blog grows: I have no time to do everything I want to with it. Blog hopping, posting, and commenting are becoming a struggle to balance evenly! It seems I’m always having to choose between them.

But I’m right there with you, I don’t regret it at all and blogging is still fun even with the problems we all face sometimes. It really is best to take breaks because like you said it’s better than just quitting completely! 🙂

Blogging is such a time-consuming thing sometimes, whether it is making the blog post as good as it can possibly be, promoting it on other social media platforms or commenting on other blogs to show that it isn’t a one-way street. And then after posting, you’re constantly looking at stats to see how well it is doing.

I’ve known for a while that I won’t be a blogger with thousands of followers, ARC’s coming out of my ears, purely because I don’t have the time to blog every day. I do once a week and spend other days commenting on other blogs. I’m just too busy to do posts and read every day. That’s why my blog now has film, TV and music reviews just to fill posts in the absence of book reviews. Despite all that, I have made some blog resolutions to spend some more time to make the blog as good as it can be, and hopefully when my life is a little less hectic, I can request lots of ARC’s etc and build the blog more.

Some brilliant advice there Heather, hopefully you’ve helped some newbie bloggers not to get too stressed out by everything! 🙂

I agree 100%, blogging is time consuming. For me it’s a constant balancing act between posting, commenting, and blog hopping. It’s getting harder and harder all the time to stay caught up with everything.

It’s good to keep your blog expectations within reach, I definitely WANT to be one of those bloggers with a good amount of followers etc. I agree with you though that just waiting to get the time to build the blog better is a great “strategy” if you want to call it that, haha!

I wanted to do up this post to let everyone know that they aren’t the only ones (like me) that deal with some of these problems! It’s nice to know we aren’t alone! 🙂

This is a fantastic post! While I admit that I am not a numbers (stats) person I tend to be horrible at paying attention to how many followers I have, etc. I do appreciate them and get excited to have new people to share with, but I have made it a rule to try to focus more on the hobby side of what I wanted going into this. I don’t really pay much mind to ARCs either. Again, enjoy them but not a personal focus. Although I can see why they are important for many bloggers. Of course.. I have only been doing this about 6 months or so and have no clue what I am doing.

You have really nailed some of the struggles here though. Managing to post often enough and interaction are huge for me! I always want to be not only engaging my own followers but supporting other blogs by commenting and sharing. It can be very hard to mange it all on those more difficult week. I do not like falling behind and missing what others share.

I have addressed my struggles with review requests to make it my policy now to never promise time frames (of course some of this has to do with my health). But I think that it is important to not be locked down to the point that this feels like a chore. In fact, I just closed myself for request again recently.

I think you have provided some excellent food for thought and offered a very realistic PoV as far as what comes with blogging and book reviews. Great job 🙂

I try not to get too caught up in my normal stats, at least not negatively, I do like that feeling though when I see a post has a good amount of views but if it doesn’t I don’t let that get me down. I do pay very close attention to my number of followers too though, but like you said it’s more of a “holy crap people care about what I have to say!” thing for me and I do appreciate every single one too!

I don’t let ARC envy get to me too much, I just tell myself that it could be me getting some popular ones some day! Like you said though ARCs definitely aren’t the focus and they shouldn’t be, we are here to share our love of books not just to get free books!

I definitely hate falling behind on every aspect of blogging, like right now I’m commenting back on your comment you left 23 days ago! I fell into a slump and needed a break but now I’m trying to catch back up. I’m finding out the more my blog grows the harder it is to stay caught up with commenting, posting, and blog hopping!

I just put up a post in review requests and addressed my issues with them. I have been closed to accepting them for a long time because I found that all of the ones I got were for books I do not have any interest in and basically found out people do not actually pay attention to my review policy!

Haha! I know what you mean 🙂 I was just out for a week unexpectedly and am now struggling to get back in the swing. I think we both see eye to eye on a lot of this. I hope your week goes well and the slump is passing 🙂

What a great post! I’m still pretty new to blogging and didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into when I started! But despite all these pressures, I’m really enjoying it and the book blogging community is so supportive and great!

Thank you! Blogging is such a fantastic hobby to have and I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I just wanted to do up a post like this to let everyone (especially newbie bloggers) know that they aren’t alone with some of these problems and that the rest of us deal with them too! I’m really glad you are enjoying it and this community is such a wonderful one to be a part of! 🙂

I think lots of people underestimate how time consuming or intimidating blogging can be, that doesn’t make it less fun though, it’s just hard work.
I’m not that bothered about followers and blog stats like I used to be in the beginning, it’s still great to see them increase though but they don’t pressure me anymore.

I do agree that I feel pressure to post constantly and to come up with unique ideas, also keeping up with ARC’s and having reviews up before the release date.

I still love blogging though and wouldn’t trade for anything in the entire world 💕

Blogging definitely is time-consuming and I’m finding out more and more just how much it is and also how much hard work it is as well. I agree though it doesn’t make it any less fun but it does get to be hard to stay caught up with everything!

I also agree with you on the followers and stats, while it’s nice to see new followers or some good stats on a post it doesn’t bother me in a negative way and doesn’t bother me as much as it used to when I was new as well!

I think the pressure for unique content and consistent posting is probably the greatest but like you said blogging is still a wonderful, fun hobby! 🙂

Hi Heather! I am a sophomore Communication student at a state university. I just wrote my first blog for one of my classes. Do you have one specific recommendation you could give me that you wish someone had told you during your first week of blogging? Thanks, in advance and good luck with book blogging!

There are probably quite a few but I think the #1 thing I wished someone had told me would be to communicate with other blogs and not be scared to put yourself out there. I found that once I did start commenting on other blogs etc. that it not only brought more people to look at my posts but also to have more fun talking about the things we enjoy.
Hope that helps you out and good luck with your new blog, don’t forget to enjoy! 😁

Great post! I agree with everything you’ve said, especially the pressure from wanting better stats and more followers. I’m still new to blogging so stats and followers have become my obsession 😀 Seriously, though, I know I’m not supposed to make such a big deal out it, but it’s hard when you’re new and you want to be noticed. I hope I’ll get better at letting go and just doing what I love

I think you’ll find the longer you’ve been blogging the less you’ll worry about followers and stats, so a little less pressure! But we have all been there, including me so It does get easier to ignore! 🙂